10 Best Opening Scenes In Martin Scorsese Films

At the 79th Academy Awards ceremony, after three decades of being snubbed, Scorsese was finally recognised for his contributions to cinema, with the filmmaker winning the Best Director award.

Marking Scorsese’s much anticipated return to the gangster genre, The Departed is a tense, action-packed thriller featuring an all-star cast. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as an undercover cop tasked with infiltrating Boston’s Irish mob. Co-starring Jack Nicholson as mob boss Frank Costello, the criminal overlord is determined to find the rat that is plaguing his crew, with the help of FBI mole Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon).

Any film that opens with a Jack Nicholson monologue and The Rolling Stones’ classic song Gimme Shelter is bound to be a classic! Outlining Costello’s philosophy and vindication of his crime empire, the sequence revolves around the mob boss integrating a young Colin into the criminal underworld.

Groomed at a young age, Colin is pulled into the mob’s web of destruction under Costello’s theory that, “No one gives it to you, you have to take it".

The opening sequence provides both a riveting and harrowing assessment of the modern gangster, setting the tone of the rest of the film in the process.